Part 1: Coasting along

Over the summer we will be visiting the great British seaside, places where you can take the family for weekend breaks and summer holidays. For a reasonable rate, you can rent a coastal home, and if you fall in love, consider buying one.

This week, we look at the Hampshire and Dorset borders and the huge, natural adventure playgrounds that take in the New Forest and the Isle of Purbeck, the sailing towns of Lymington and Christchurch, the glitz of Poole, with its massive harbour, and bucket-and-spade Swanage. Not much more than a two-hour drive from London, a holiday home here is bound to become a family heirloom to be passed down through the generations.

THE NEW FOREST

When the gorse is in flower, as it is at this time of the year, this ancient area of forest and heathland is a blaze of yellow, and a fine place to rest for your pub lunch after a long walk. Once the ancient hunting grounds of kings, the New Forest (which is in the process of acquiring National Park status) has traditions that date back more than 900 years, and has hardly changed since the days of William the Conqueror.

The commoners still have the right to graze wild ponies and cattle in the forest, while the Ancient Verderers Court, one of England's oldest judicial courts, still meets six times a year.

Tucked away in the forest are the attractive villages of Beaulieu, home of the National Motor Museum; Exbury, where the Rothschild family has a garden with its fabulous collection of rhododendrons, azaleas, and camellias; Burley, where the High Street swarms with ponies; and Bransgore. And if you want to get a flavour of the place before you rent or buy, stay in one of the delightful little B and Bs in the villages.

LYMINGTON AND CHRISTCHURCH

Whether it's messing about in boats or ocean-going yacht racing, Lymington and Christchurch are the places to aim for. Smart and sophisticated Lymington is a fine, predominantly red-brick Georgian town, with plenty of interesting shops and restaurants. The former smuggler's haven is built on an estuary and has a series of pretty cobbled streets running from the centre down to the quay. There is easy access to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight from the car or passenger ferries, and a lively Saturday market along the length of the High Street. There are two sailing clubs, smart Royal Lymington - patron, the Princess Royal - and the Lymington Town Sailing Club.

Its slightly more down-to-earth neighbour Christchurch is famed for its priory parish church, with a 311ft long nave reputed to be the longest of any parish church in England. The nearby quay facing the River Avon is a mass of masts and small boats. Just sitting on the quay watching them coming and going is a pleasing way to pass the time.

Milford on Sea is a little seaside town between the two. The town's benefactor, architect William Ravenscroft, paid for many of the communal buildings and built charming Arts and Crafts-style houses.

Mudeford is a little fishing village on a sandbank overlooking Christchurch Bay, with the Solent on one side and Christchurch Harbour on the other. The 300 multicoloured beach huts are among the most sought after in the country. They change hands for up to £75,000 and even have their own website, www.mudeford-beach-huts.co.uk.

Zoe McKee, of estate agents Paul Jackson, says Lymington prices have always commanded a premium. "There is a huge demand from the yachting crowd. With the mainline station at Brockenhurst so close by, Londoners can be in their boats in under two hours.

"Expect to pay £200,000 upwards for a two-bedroom cottage and £300,000 upwards for a four-bedroom house. There are also attractive flats above the shops in the High Street, many of which are Georgian. We recently sold a two-bedroom maisonette there for £210,000."

THE ISLE OF PURBECK AND SWANAGE

Dinosaurs once roamed on the Dorset and East Devon coast, which is why it is now known as the Jurassic Coast. At the end of last year it became a World Heritage Site, the only natural site on mainland Britain. The rocks in Durlston Bay, just south of Swanage, are full of the fossil remains of crocodiles, turtles and fish. In 1997, more than 100 dinosaur footprints were found in National Trust land at Keat's Quarry.

The Isle of Purbeck still has a remote, primordial feel, which accounts for its charm. At Studland there are nearly three miles of sandy beaches, on which the allies practised the Normandy landings during the Second World War. The hill-top ruins of Corfe Castle provide a stunning backdrop to one of Dorset's prettiest villages, built of the famous Purbeck stone.

Meanwhile, families return year after year to the Victorian seaside town of Swanage, with its clean, sandy beaches. David Corben of estate agents Corben and Son says that two-bedroom cottages here sell for £125,000 upwards and four-bedroom detached houses for £275,000. "Rural and village properties are also popular. We recently sold a two-bedroom cottage in Corfe Castle for £198,000 within 24 hours of it appearing on our website."

POOLEHome of Poole Pottery, the lava lamp and Lush Fresh Cosmetics, Poole has one of the world's largest natural harbours and some of the country's most expensive property. The historic quay area to the west of the town has a maze of pretty streets, quayside pubs and museums and a long pedestrianised high street running from just behind the quay to the Dolphin shopping centre.

Sandbanks, Canford Cliffs and the Branksome Park area of Poole are the south coast's equivalent of Palm Beach. The sand dunes, which were once part of a shanty town, have become a millionaire's playground, with blocks of luxury flats and enormous mansions set behind high fences and security gates.

A recent survey by New York property agent Corcoran found that Sandbanks was the world's fourth most expensive place to live after Tokyo's Shibuya district, Hong Kong's Barker Road and London's Eaton Square. Famous Sandbanks residents include former West Ham boss Harry Redknapp, his footballer son, Jamie, and daughter-in-law, pop star Louise, and Tottenham Hotspur's Darren Anderton. Former cricketer Geoffrey Boycott and old-style entertainer Max Bygraves are longer- standing residents.

Sandbanks is a brash, self-confident place, a Bishops Avenue by the sea for self-made businessmen and footballers rather than Arab sheiks.

Tom Doyle, of estate agents Lloyds, says people will spend more than £2 million for the right house. "A lot of the older houses are being knocked down and larger houses are going up in their place. I recently sold a two-year-old house for just over £1 million, but now the owner has decided to knock it down and build something bigger.

"A lot of people arrive here in stages. They start with the large powerboat, which they moor at Salterns Marina, one of the world's most exclusive marinas. Then they buy a small flat, so they don't have to live on the boat. After that they often fall in love with the life down here, and downsize in London for a larger house here."